Coral Harbour Base, 31 DEC. ‘17 (RBDF): Nine foreign nationals were turned over to a Royal Bahamas Defence Force patrol craft by a tanker off Grand Bahama earlier today.
The foreign nationals–one Haitian-Bahamian and eight Chinese nationals–were retrieved from a partially submerged vessel by crewmembers of a passing tanker approximately 17 miles southwest of Grand Bahama.
The Defence Force’s base at its Northern Command operations in Freeport was informed of the incident and one of its patrol craft attached to the Northern Command took the foreign nationals into custody. The nine foreigners were later handed over to Immigration authorities in Freeport for further investigation.
Just yesterday, the Defence Force apprehended 76 Haitian migrants near the southern end of the Tongue of the Ocean, 20 miles west of the Exuma chain and were turned over to Immigration officials.
Five days ago, the Defence Force apprehended 14 foreign nationals from five countries aboard a motor yacht off Montagu Beach for Immigration violations.
About a week ago, 87 migrants were apprehended on a Haitian sloop over 30 miles southwest of Great Inagua.
The Royal Bahamas Defence Force remains committed to protecting the territorial integrity of The Bahamas.
